The Outlook:
Uncle Sam's Place and
Prospects in International
Politics
Newton Macmillan.
THE OUTLOOK:
UNCLE SAM'S PLACE AND PROSPECTS IN
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS.
A Paper
Read before The Fortnightly Club, Oswego, N. Y.,
May 2, 1899,
BY
NEWTON MACMILLAN.
ordered published by the fortnightly club.
1899.
PRESS OF R. J. OLIPHANT,
OSWEGO, N. Y.
The Outlook:
UNCLE SAM'S PLACE AND PROSPECTS IN INTERNATIONAL POLITICS.
IT is exactly a year and a day since Oswego, responding tothe President's call, sent away her modest quota of citizen-soldieryto the war with Spain. A novel and inspiring scene,whose meaning, perhaps, we did not wholly take in at thetime: the flag of the Republic borne away from the precinctsof the city at the head of a body of men of peaceful pursuits,destined, as we supposed, to invade the soil of an alien foe.
The event proved otherwise. Our neighbors were not topass the boundaries of their native land, but with equal gallantrythey were to perform the part of those who "alsoserve," although they "only stand and wait." Their partwas not to scale the awful hill at San Juan, to give theirbodies to the noisome vermin of the Cuban chaparral, or tolie down in death upon the fever-stricken rice-fields of Luzon.Nevertheless they partook in the glory of those victories wonby their more fortunate comrades, to the honor and credit ofthe entire army of the United States. Theirs also is anequal part in the renown which all the world now accords tothat new and formidable factor in warfare—the AmericanVolunteer.
Truly a May day long to be remembered. Even as wefollowed the flag to the confines of the town news came froma distant land where that same beloved standard had beencarried to victory and undying glory. In the far-away harborof Manila a gallant officer had awaked that morning unknownto fame, but before he slept he had written the name ofGeorge Dewey upon the imperishable scroll with that ofDrake, and Nelson, and Perry, and Farragut; destroyed the[Pg 4]power and prestige of Spain in the East—a fabric four centuriesin building, but toppled over in as many hours; annexeda new and splendid territory to our domain, and—mostimportant of all—launched the Republic upon a new andgreater career.
A wonderful day indeed, and the first of many that wereto make the twelvemonth just concluded one of the most, ifnot the most important in our history. He is a dull citizen ofthe Republic, indeed, who does not see in this swift successionof events a significance wide and deep. An ancientregime has been swept from our hemisphere and relegated tothe rubbish heap of nations. Our flag flies not only in theAntilles but in mid-Pacific, by token that that illimitableocean is now to us an inland lake. Our army and navy,posted at China's doorway to uphold our place in the perennialstruggle for mastery in the East, is a notification to thegreat powers that henceforth they have to reckon with anotheras formidable—perhaps, also, as rapacious—as themselves."You must understand," said Mr. Speaker Reedthe other day to a distinguished British visitor, "that wehave burst our swaddling-clothes." And in that jocular epigramlies a meaning almost beyond words to express.
If we ourselves fail to t